Half of the Moon and Lunar X in a Craters Show

When the Moon in it´s orbital movement around Earth is 50% illuminated the by sunlight, can show us a beautiful game of light and shadows providing a remarkable view from its large and small craters, in a one night show for an observer equipped with a telescope. In this high resolution sharp mosaic of two panels, composed by an average stack of 16 pictures each one, the crescent moon lies at a distance of more than 373,000km from Earth, showing besides the grey landscape spread by lunar impacts of ancient times, an interesting shape known as the Lunar X (try to find it for yourself). This strange effect in which light and shadow creates the appearance of a letter ‘X’ on the rim of the Blanchinus, La Caille and Purbach craters, is only visible for a few hours before the first quarter, slightly below the lunar terminator. But this fine sharp picture, can also provide a detailed view from craters like, Aristoteles with a diameter of 87km and a depth of 3.3 km, lies near the southern edge of the Mare Frigoris and to the east of the Montes Alpes mountain range. Posidonius (with a diameter of 95 km and a 2.3 km of depth) is a lunar impact crater that is located on the north-eastern edge of Mare Serenitatis, to the south of Lacus Somniorum. The floor is also slightly bulged due to the past lava uplift, which also likely produced the complex of rilles. The crater Chacornac is attached to the southeast rim, and to the north is Daniell. Not far away, in the northeast part of the Moon we find a similar but smaller shape of Hercules (with diameter of 69 km and a 3.2 km of depth).The crater floor has been flooded by lava in the past, and contains several areas of low albedo. Captured on April 4 of 2017 in Cumeada Observatory from Dark Sky® Alqueva Reserve, Reguengos de Monsaraz.